1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to computing devices, and more particularly to thermal solutions for computing devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
In various types of electronic systems, microprocessors and sometimes other types of integrated circuits are often connected to some form of larger printed circuit board, such as a motherboard, daughterboard or other type of a printed circuit board. In some cases, the integrated circuit is connected to the motherboard by direct soldering or other direct mounting techniques. In other cases, a socket is provided on the upper surface of the motherboard that is designed to receive the integrated circuit. For those integrated circuits that consist of some type of package enclosure and some plurality of conductor pins that project from the package, the motherboard socket includes a corresponding plurality (pin grid array or PGA) of individual socket holes that are arranged spatially to match up with corresponding conductor pins on the integrated circuit package. Ball grid array and land grid array integrated circuit packages require circuit board sockets with correspondingly different types of interconnects.
Packaged integrated circuits usually undergo package level testing prior to mounting to an operational board. Such testing is performed on a test board and frequently with a test socket appropriate for the particular package, e.g., PGA, BGA or LGA. The packaged part is mounted on the test socket and subjected to various diagnostics. Depending on the power dissipation of the integrated circuit and the duration and intensity of testing, a thermal solution will be required to cool the integrated circuit during testing. If the part passes the socket test, the thermal solution is moved off the integrated circuit and the next part is inserted and so on.
A difficulty associated with conventional thermal solutions is that thermal solutions used on test sockets are different than the thermal solutions suitable for and actually used on production boards where the integrated circuit is either soldered down (BGA parts) or assembled into a production socket (LGA for example). These different thermal solutions may cause difficulty in correlating thermal parameters as the thermal behavior of each thermal solution (i.e., testing versus production) is very different in both cases. Current techniques rely on some guesswork to extend thermal testing data from a test socket thermal solution to a production board thermal solution.
The present invention is directed to overcoming or reducing the effects of one or more of the foregoing disadvantages.